Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these.  And, for that I apologize.  But it’s not (entirely) because I’ve been lazy.  Nope!  I’ve been busy.  In the past few months, our client base has grown–and grown quite well, I might add.  We’ve lost a few clients, and we’re sorry to see them go, but that’s the way business works.  The main thing is that we’re moving forward and getting bigger.

The Good

As I said, we’ve been growing.  We’ve also been adding to our services and tweaking the ones we already have.  A large part of our growth has come from the launch of our Small Biz Niche package.   The Small Biz Niche allows businesses to enter the world of company websites, without a huge overhead or time commitment.

Just today, I was reading an article that says “46 percent of small businesses surveyed said they did not have a website“.  My question is “Why not?!”  For only $120, you can have a powerful, easy-to-use company website.   That’s less than a small ad in a weekly newspaper.

The Bad

Google still hasn’t offered us a bazillion dollars to buy out our company.  {sigh}  Maybe next week.

We’re not perfect.  On occasion, things go wrong, and we don’t always catch them when they do.  That’s where we rely on you guys.  If something isn’t working the way you think it should be (or has in the past), drop us an e-mail or send an IM.  Let us know.

Recently, an upgrade to our system software caused a strange glitch in webmail.   A customer got a hold of me over IM and let me know.  It was fixed within a few minutes.  No problem.   Later that day, I was talking with another client, and she mentioned that she’d been having that problem for “a while”.  Ack!  Had we known about it, we could have fixed it earlier.

Please please don’t be afraid to give us a friendly nudge to let us know if something’s wrong.   Sometimes it’s a quick fix, sometimes it’s a serious issue–either way, we want to fix it!   And… to be honest, sometimes is your fault.  But we’ll let you know, and maybe we’ll even be able to help.

The Ugly

We’ve also been dealing with some not-so-pleasant stuff.

Y’know how I said “sometimes it’s your fault” a few seconds ago?  Well, that can be a bit problem.   We had been having issues with repeated infections of a couple sites.  Paul was right on top of it and stamped out the nasty bugs as quickly as the cropped up.  But they kept cropping up!  He was finally able to track down the problem:  one of our clients had her personal computer infected by a virus that was stealing her passwords (and who knows what else!).   The black-hats kept getting in because they had the keys.  This is our worst nightmare (okay… not the worst–that would be the one where we’re forced to watch a musical remake of Twilight starring David Hasselhoff and Rosanne Barr–but it’s pretty high up the list).

Please make sure that your anti-virus is up to date.   We don’t want to have to cut off your service.

And the Frog Prince

Hey, we can’t end on an ugly note!

A lot of our ideas come from our users, and a lot of the improvements we make are are inspired by questions, suggestions, and yes, even complaints our customers have.   We like that!  We like to hear from you–and not just when things are wrong. 

During some random conversations with friends and co-workers, we’ve come up with a couple ideas for new products.  Since you already know who we are and how we work, I thought I’d ask your opinion.

Kid’s Niche:

A very small, very inexpensive website built on WordPress and designed specifically for the 10-to-15-year-old market.   We’d price it low enough to encourage parents to get the kids to pay for it with their own money.  And we set up the parent as the site admin–full and complete control of the site–so that they can keep track of what their child is doing.   There’s a lot of concern about social networking sites and kids; parents are afraid of who’s out there, and how little control they have.  This would give the kids something of their own, while allowing the parents to watch what’s happening and step in if need be.

Freelancer’s Clearinghouse:

We know a lot of geeks.  A LOT of geeks.  And, like everyone, those geeks are often looking for a way to pick up a little extra cash.  We’ve been tossing around the idea of bringing these freelancers under our roof and letting them put their services up for bid.   Is this something you’d like to see:   Designers, coders, artists, photographers, and techs available for hire through a list provided here on Geek Niche?

Let us know what you think.  Let us know what you want  (from us–hopefully that’ll cut down on the smart-ass replies).